Chiefs’ snap counts vs. Raiders: Thompson has a season high; Thornhill comes up big
With a 3-yard touchdown pass in the first quarter to running back Darrel Williams, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes now has 70 touchdowns in 27 career games played on his young career.
The achievement passed Pro Football Hall of Famer Dan Marino’s mark of 29 games, making Mahomes the fastest player to reach 70 career touchdown passes in NFL history.
While the milestone is remarkable, Mahomes showed Sunday during a 40-9 win over the Oakland Raiders that he can be like everyone else — a mere mortal.
For a second consecutive game, Mahomes established a career low in passing yards as a starter with 175 yards on 66 snaps before giving way to Matt Moore, whose lone snap came in victory formation. Mahomes added 25 yards rushing and a touchdown on three carries.
In Week 11, Mahomes previously passed for 182 yards, which now represents his second-lowest passing output as a fulltime starter on his career.
Still, the Chiefs didn’t need to rely on Mahomes’ golden arm. The defense more than picked up the slack by coming up big with two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown, and two sacks while holding the Raiders to 122 yards passing.
Here’s how the individual snaps counts break down from Week 13 action, which had the Chiefs improve to 8-4 on the season with a two-game lead in the AFC West:
RUNNING BACKS
LeSean McCoy (24), Darwin Thompson (24, 12 on special teams), Darrel Williams (18, 1 on ST), Anthony Sherman (6, 18 on ST)
The Chiefs entered Sunday without Damien Williams, who was out because of a rib injury. And the backfield thinned out even more when Darrel Williams injured his hamstring, leaving the Chiefs with McCoy and Thompson as rushers.
Thompson recorded a season-high 24 offensive snaps, the majority coming in the second half. He made of the most of the extended playing time by finishing the game with a team-high 44 yards rushing and touchdown on 11 carries.
McCoy also recorded 24 snaps and chipped in with 10 yards rushing and a touchdown on five carries. McCoy added three catches for 20 yards on three targets, giving his 502 catches on his career. He becomes just one of four running backs since 2000 to record 500 or more catches.
Darrel Williams had 13 yards rushing on six carries before exiting the game early in the third quarter.
As a group, the Chiefs produced 96 yards rushing and three touchdowns on 29 attempts, averaging 3.3 yards per carry.
WIDE RECEIVERS
Tyreek Hill (54), Sammy Watkins (41), Demarcus Robinson (38, 4 on ST), Mecole Hardman (26, 8 on ST), Byron Pringle (5, 14 on ST), Gehrig Dieter (3, 7 on ST)
Hill led the way with five catches for 55 yards on eight targets, but the group was relatively quiet when considering Hill was the lone wideout to record a catch on the game.
Watkins was targeted three times, while no other receiver saw a look from Mahomes.
Dieter recorded an assisted tackle on special teams.
TIGHT ENDS
Travis Kelce (61), Blake Bell (34, 10 on ST)
Kelce totaled five catches for 90 yards on nine targets and provided a big play with a 47-yard catch down the left sideline in the third quarter, which set up McCoy’s 3-yard touchdown run.
Bell totaled 34 snaps on the game in his return to action after missing time with a high-ankle sprain.
OFFENSIVE LINE
Mitchell Schwartz (67, 6 on ST), Eric Fisher (67, 6 on ST), Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (67, 6 on ST), Austin Reiter (67, 6 on ST), Andrew Wylie (67, 6 on ST), Stefen Wisniewski (1, 6 on ST)
The Chiefs’ front five came out of the game unscathed, as each starter played every offensive snap.
Wisniewski played one offensive snap in the first half when the Chiefs went with a jumbo package.
DEFENSIVE LINE
Tanoh Kpassagnon (51, 5 on ST), Alex Okafor (40, 3 on ST), Chris Jones (36, 3 on ST), Frank Clark (33), Derrick Nnadi (32, 3 on ST), Mike Pennel (24), Khalen Saunders (20)
Kpassagnon led the charge with snaps among the defensive linemen and totaled five tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit. He also blocked an extra point attempt late in the fourth quarter.
Jones totaled five tackles, a sack and a quarterback hit, adding a pass defensed.
Okafor saw action on 40 snaps, the second-highest among the defensive linemen, in his return to action after missing three games with an ankle injury. He did not record a tackle.
Clark totaled a tackle on 33 snaps before exiting the contest in the second half with a shoulder injury.
LINEBACKERS
Anthony Hitchens (46, 2 on ST), Damien Wilson (40), Reggie Ragland (27, 1 on ST), Ben Niemann (14, 17 on ST), Darron Lee (10, 14 on ST), Dorian O’Daniel (16 on ST)
Hitchens and Ragland each produced five tackles, while Wilson chipped in with three tackles.
Niemann and Lee were involved in the linebacker rotation as the game progressed, while O’Daniel produced a tackle and a fumble recovery on special teams.
DEFENSIVE BACKS
Juan Thornhill (60, 7 on ST), Charvarius Ward (55, 6 on ST), Tyrann Mathieu (50), Bashaud Breeland (41), Daniel Sorensen (28, 10 on ST), Morris Claiborne (24), Kendall Fuller (17, 8 on ST), Armani Watts (10, 17 on ST), Rashad Fenton (2, 4 on ST)
Thornhill made the most of playing every defensive snap with three tackles, a pick-six and a pass defensed. One of the rookie’s tackles came on a fourth-and-1 stop in the first half to give the ball back to the Chiefs’ offense.
Mathieu secured an interception, marking a second straight game he picked off an opposing quarterback, while Ward produced two tackles and returned a blocked extra point attempt for a 2-point conversion.
Fuller saw action on just 17 defensive snaps on his return to action after missing five games while recovering from thumb surgery.
Fenton, who forced a fumble on special teams, left the game with a hamstring injury in the first half.
SPECIALISTS
Harrison Butker (13), Dustin Colquitt (8), James Winchester (8)
Butker was a perfect 5 of 5 on extra points and nailed a 50-yard field goal early in the third quarter.
The third-year kicker now has eight field goals of 50 or more yards on his career to pass Cairo Santos for the fourth-most in Chiefs history.
INACTIVES
Damien Williams (rib), Chad Henne, Demone Harris, Jackson Barton, Jordan Lucas, Nick Allegretti, Deon Yelder
